Seoul City to Host 2023 Water Seoul and Urban Policy International Conference

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 17th that it will hold the ‘2023 Water Seoul·Urban Policy International Conference,’ where domestic and international experts will engage in in-depth discussions on revitalizing waterfront spaces throughout Seoul.

'2023 Water Seoul·Urban Policy International Conference'.
[Image provided by Seoul City]

The event will take place over two days, from the 23rd to the 24th, at the 5th-floor auditorium of the Seoul Waterworks Headquarters. It will be broadcast live online via ‘Seoul City·Seoul’ (the city’s official YouTube channel) and ‘Dosi TV’ (the official YouTube channel of the Korean Land and Urban Planning Association).

The theme of this conference is ‘The Center of Emotion, Leisure (餘流) Space Waterfront.’ Compared to Seoul, many major cities overseas actively utilize their waterfronts to build landmarks that attract people worldwide, as well as provide citizens with pleasant resting spaces. Accordingly, through this conference, Seoul plans to explore the future vision of its waterfront spaces based on advanced overseas cases.

Seoul is focusing on the value of waterfronts, which is directly linked to enhancing urban competitiveness, and is making efforts to actively utilize waterfront spaces. The aim is to reorganize waterfront areas into attractive waterside zones and tourist attractions so that citizens can enjoy diverse leisure and cultural activities, thereby laying the foundation for a new leap forward.

The conference will begin with a keynote video from Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, followed by congratulatory remarks from Kim Yong-ho, Chair of the Seoul Metropolitan Council Policy Committee, Park Jun-hong, President of the Korean Society on Water Environment, and Kwon Il, Vice President of the Korean Land and Urban Planning Association.

On the 23rd, under the theme ‘Culture, a Vibrant Water City (水都) Seoul,’ the conference will examine both technical and cultural aspects of revitalizing waterfront spaces. In particular, as the climate crisis emerges as a global agenda, there will be in-depth discussions on safe and eco-friendly waterfront revitalization strategies utilizing Nature-based Solutions (NbS), whose importance is growing.

On the following day, the 24th, experts will share urban development strategies through cases of waterfront revitalization in Italy and the United Kingdom. Focusing on the past and present of Seoul’s Han River, the conference will envision the future of the Han River, which is directly connected to Seoul’s urban competitiveness.

Klaus Luger, mayor of Linz, Austria’s economic center that successfully transformed from a steel city to the cultural capital of Europe, will deliver a special lecture on the revitalization of waterfront spaces along the Danube River, where culture and arts flow.

Citizens wishing to participate can pre-register through the conference website by the 20th. Participation is limited to the first 140 registrants, and on-site attendance is also possible.

Yoo Chang-soo, Seoul’s Deputy Mayor for Administration, said, “Through this unusually two-day conference, we will be able to cover a richer variety of domestic and international waterfront cases,” adding, “We hope to generate diverse insights that can reorganize waterfronts as the center of urban space and create new value.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.